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Nurses call for a Positive Practice Environment in the workplace
DENOSA has noted with great concern the recent media reports implicating nurses in the workplace. As a nursing organisation, we would like to raise the following critical issues in the workplace that we think need to be attended to as a matter of urgency.
Gross shortage of nurses in facilities
The high vacancy rates at our health institutions are alarming at a time when patient intake at health facilities keeps on increasing every year, largely as a result of the burden of both communicable and non-communicable diseases, which give rise to patients on chronic medication. Because human resource is a critical element in a facility, it is main cause for frustration for either a resigned or retired nurse to be replaced from six to twelve months, or even more, after they have resigned. This causes burn-out among few nurses who work under extremely difficult conditions that are often characterised by shortage of resources, broken equipment, short supply of medication, and lack of support.
These conditions and many others are proving to be main drivers of nurses out of the public sector to private where these conditions are somewhat less strenuous than in the public sector.
Shortage of necessary personnel with different skills
Because the country does not have not enough midwives, various health facilities improvise and deploy general nurses to maternity sections. DENOSA calls for a stop to this practice and calls for a prioritization of skilling of nurses through continuous professional development, which very nurses have a chance to make use of because of shortage of nurses at wards.
DENOSA calls for a Positive Practice Environment for both health professionals to be able to work with passion, and for patients to recuperate quickly and sufficiently. DENOSA calls for the implementation of the Service Charter, which is an agreement that trade unions and government entered into in August 2013 as a commitment by both parties to proving a conducive environment for public servants to work under and for public servants to provide quality service to citizens.
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